Sydney FC call for more A-League games

Definitely need to push to the full set of 2x home and away games. Even if a 36 week season will drive my wife to throttle me!

So many interesting issues facing Damien de Bohun when he takes over as A-League COO next month. This is yet another "watershed year" for the League. It needs to consolidate on the growth of last year, continue to grow the playing standard and entertainment value to help grow attendances, ratings and revenue. And with more attendances, revenue and TV ratings it can head into Media deal negotiations with an added air of optimism and provision for future growth and perhaps more games and an FFA Cup. But lets establish a solid foundation in season 8 first. Get out there and support your team even its the first time you've been to a game or at the very least leave your foxtel box switched on to the A-League.

Good point - forgot the Storm still play in Melbourne. I never hear anything about them. WSW has plans to play a few matches at other venues, so that's not a problem. Also, the Nix have other stadia. Regardless, it wouldn't take much organising to have these stadia used every alternative week-end for NRL & HAL - the Stadium operators would bend over backwards to ensure their lumpy & expensive asset has higher utilisation rates.

You can add Parramatta Stadium, Westpac Stadium and AAMI Park to your list of stadia which would have a scheduling problem. Which would mean seven teams would be affected - that's a major problem.

An excellent debate... the need to extend the competition is obvious in terms of player development and for many football reasons.... the need control costs is also obvious ... decent media coverage in the playing season is also needed... All these points are obvious but lead to different conclusions about the length of the season... My two bobs worth is the cost of stadium hire is way to high for many teams... downing sizing to smaller stadiums IMO is the key or maybe approaching the stadium owners to get an affordable rent... FFA also need to allocate the Grand Final to the top team to qualifier.. otherwise given our media you may struggle to fill the stadium for a grand final...

Good except u dont need to convince a union of anything to reduce the wage floor. Do it because it makes good business sense. :) Id wait till there are 8 budget regional options and bring in a second division. 10 team top league four rounds 36 games, A2 set up along aleague year 1 lines, 21 games. And also ...u dont need all this no youth setup, decreased stadia or smaller squads regulations ...let all clubs spend to what is sustainable in their individual circumstances. I know the antithesis of what is there now. But a much more sustainable business model, at least to people who understand what the concept truly means.

I've seen the following suggested elsewhere: Add 6 new 'budget' sides to the competition. Canberra, Tasmania, Wollongong/South Coast, Gold Coast, North Queensland, third Victorian side. For these sides, for a 3 year period, there would be: - Smaller squads - Lower salary cap (negotiated with the PFA on the basis that the overall slice of the pie going to players would be increased) - No youth team - No w-league team - Decreased stadium requirements 16 team competition, 30 round home and away season. Budget sides would traditionally struggle against established full-price sides, and regular defeats are never a good thing for a new start up team - but by having 6 new sides join at the same time, you are ensured that these sides will be competitive against each other, providing at least 10 games a year each which are 'winnable'. What do others think? I think it is a good idea.

All teams need a secondary venue where ground availability is an issue.

Not all teams do that currently, Roarsome. More games to other teams will only be of benefit. The Jets for example kept training as if they were in the Finals Series right up until the Grand Final. They had a short break but are now in their third phase of preseason and as of tonight will have a third of probably 15 trial games under their belt before season kick-off. Having some of those games as meaningful cup or season games would only benefit players, fans, the game and especially clubs that don't have ACL or finals series imo :-)

Agree Pete...long way into the future but clubs with their own grounds is what ultimately will be needed to give A-League flexibility to run their season when they want for how long they want (on the best surfaces they can grow ;-) )

I wonder at FFA's thoughts on this topic? I imagine on season length it is on their mind as is the beginning and end dates. Money is an obvious issue as it costs to send teams to away games even with smaller away squads but is something that could be alleviated somewhat in future TV deals. Similarly will it cost clubs more for renting grounds if they play more games? As we've seen with the Socceroo vs Japan game it is hard to fix a fixture list to guarantee suitable surfaces when they are shared with other codes with different surface requirements. While you can have too long a season (Euro2012 types tournaments means some players going to fatigue sooner in a busy season following) I think we do need a longer season here, particularly if qualifying tournaments occur during the long off season means players not out on loan are going to be less match fit when required for qualifying. I think, apart from budget issues, we will need to break out of our self-imposed season window and break into other codes seasons at some point if we are to grow, especially in the future if more teams are added to the HAL A cup competition could help on a number of fronts here: linking grassroots and amateur state leagues to A-League; give A-League squads more meaningful pre-season games as well as reduce the long off season somewhat. As the A-League grows, Cup games and ACL commitments for some will give a full season of games.

mds1970 - while I agree I'd love there to be a longer season the biggest issue with shared stadium use is the state of the pitch. Look at the state of the surface at Suncorp stadium for the Grand final was poor and then look at it again for the Socceroos v Japan game was worse. When the other codes start it doesn't matter to them because the bumpier the ground the better. I can't see us having a longer season until such time as we all have most teams playing in our own stadia.

mds1970 I have data that clearly demonstrates - for MVFC home games - the crowds are unaffected by an AFL match being played at exactly the same time in Melbourne. I also have data that shows an MVFC home match played on the evening of Oaks Day (one of the 4 biggest days in the Racing Calendar) had no impact on MVFC's home crowd. In relation to "access to stadia", I can only think of SFS & Lang Park & Hunter Stadium where there would be conflict & I think even a High School Computer Studies Assignment could devise a way to avoid any fixture conflicts. As for "not getting mainstream media coverage during AFL/NRL season ... er ... who cares? We get insignificant mainstream media coverage outside AFL/NRL season. Real professionals, who play sport, don't need a 6 month holiday. 6 month holidays are for quasi-professional sports & quasi-professional sportsmen.

You could extend the season by having each team playing each other 4 times; the 9-game increase done by starting the season in September and taking the home and away season through April with the finals in May. The main issue would be ground availability. Most A-League grounds are also NRL grounds; so there could potentially be issues with rugby league chopping up the playing surface, and games needing to be switched at short notice when NRL takes priority for their finals and their “floating” fixtures early in their season. But not all the venues will be used by rugby league every day of every weekend during that time, so it could be done. The other commercial issue is potential clashes with other sports. Obviously the A-League would try to minimise them; but with a longer season, some clashes would be inevitable. But no date and time is going to suit everyone. And if it’s best for football/soccer to have a longer season, they will just have to accept that there will be some games that won’t get any public traction and will be outdrawn, outwatched and out-publicised by other sports being played at the same time, but go ahead and play the A-League games anyway.

Love the Crook! :) If they want to maximise those transfer fees...well, help them be better players. More games is the key. Also means some of them will be keen to stay longer. Find a way...they could if it were Priority...

Yup - totally agree. I've been saying the same thing for quite some time - the FFA needs to increase the number of matches played each season by: a) increasing the HAL season to 36 rounds by having each of the 10 teams playing every opponent twice at home, rather than the current situation, which sees teams play some opponents twice at home & only once away; b) introducing a knock-out National Cup competition Lots has happened in 7 years & I expect a lot more to happen in the next 7 years.

Off season is way too long and the kids particularly need to be playing more football, simple as that.

Note to Carle Longer season won't help you as there are better players in front of you.

The off season isn't as long if you play finals and ACL. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.